Mothers Milk Banks

[Guest guest]

Just received this message....thought I'd foward it to the group.

Jan

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Mothers' Milk Bank Needs Your Milk

There is a shortage of donated breast milk nationwide and the human milk

banks need your donations.

Premature or sick babies and children, whose mothers are not able to produce

their own milk, many times due to illness, medication, adoption or foster

care need your breast milk. Mothers who are healthy and breast feeding may be

able to donate to a milk bank.

Your breast milk can be pumped, frozen and stored at home until picked up or

delivered by you to a milk bank. If you want to ship milk to a bank, the

containers for shipping and cost of shipping are provided by the milk bank.

There are 6 milk banks listed below that belong to the Human Milk Banking

Association of North America. A donor milk bank is a service established for

the purpose of collecting, screening, processing, and distributing donated

human milk to meet specific medical needs of individuals for whom it is

prescribed.

If you don't live close to one of these milk banks, please contact your local

hospital to find a milk bank in your area. You won't get any money for

donating your breast milk, but you will get the warm feeling of helping a

newborn or mom with your milk.

Reasons for donating breast milk:

You have enough breast milk for your baby and extra. The amount of breast

milk produced is dependent on demand so if you start pumping extra milk to

donate, your body will respond by producing more breast milk. You can pump

between your baby's feedings and freeze the breast milk to donate. Remember

to increase your intake of fluids. Most babies drink about 1 quart of breast

milk a day and can empty a breast in about 15 minutes.

You are a healthy woman whose child is less than 1 year of age and you don't

drink alcohol, smoke, use over the counter medications or prescriptions,

herbal or illegal drugs or vitamin supplements in excess of 100% of the RDA.

A few medications are acceptable, including a multi-vitamin, low-dose

progestin, birth control pills, insulin, and thyroid replacement. A lot of

chemicals pass through breast milk and premies or sick babies have enough to

handle.

Your doctor gives you the go ahead to donate your breast milk. You'll need to

go through a health screening and blood test at the milk bank like you do at

the blood bank, but if you are healthy and able to donate, milk banks need

your breast milk. Blood testing may include testing for German measles,

syphilis, hepatitis B and C, HIV 1 & 2, and HTLV. All testing is done by the

milk bank at no cost to the donor.

You want to lose weight for a good cause. The metabolic rate for a breast

feeding woman is about 2300 calories a day compared to 1500 calories a day

for a non-pregnant, non-breast feeding woman. Milk banks do not accept breast

milk from women who induce lactation to lose weight.

Your baby is premature and you are pumping to keep up your milk supply until

your baby comes home from the hospital. If your baby will not need all of the

milk you have stored once he or she is fully breast feeding, your excess milk

could help save a life.

You are pumping your milk anyway for times that you are away from your baby.

You are employed outside your home and pump breast milk at work to feed your

baby at day care or later at home. It's hard to judge just how much your baby

will drink and you find you have excess breast milk stored. Donate your

excess breast milk.

Your milk will be pasteurized by the milk bank so that viruses are killed,

but almost all of the passive immunity in breast milk will remain. Please

contact your local milk bank listed below or your local hospital to find a

milk bank near you.

In the United States:

Mothers' Milk Bank

Valley Medical Center

San , CA

Mothers' Milk Bank

P/SL Medical Center

Denver CO

Lactation Center and Mothers' Milk Bank

WakeMed

Raleigh NC

Mothers' Milk Bank

Christiana Care Health System

Newark DE

Regional Milk Bank & Breastfeeding Center

University of Massachusetts Memorial Health Care

Worcester MA

Mothers' Milk Bank of Austin

Austin TX

In Canada:

C & W Milk Bank

Lactation Services

British Columbia Children's Hospital

Vancouver BC Canada

In Mexico:

Banco de Leche

Veracruz, Mexico

+52 55 14 45 51

If you don't live close to one of these milk banks, please contact your local

hospital to find a milk bank in your area. If your health care facility

operates a milk bank not listed here, please write to Joanne Larsen MS RD LD

and she will add your milk bank to this list. Thank you for banking your milk.

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